The Bulletin of National Defence University of Ukraine

The article presents the results of an empirical study on the role of religiosity and coping strategies in shaping the psychological resilience of military personnel who are participants in combat operations. The relevance of this study stems from the need to identify effective psychological resources for the adaptation of personnel under conditions of prolonged combat stress. The aim of the study was to investigate the structure of predictors of psychological resilience among military personnel with different types of worldview identification and to determine the role of religiosity and coping strategies in the process of adaptation to extreme conditions. The study involved 106 military personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine who had participated in combat operations; they were divided into two groups according to their type of worldview orientation: religiously centred and non-religious combatants. To collect empirical data, the Individual Religiosity Test by Yu.V. Shcherbatykh, the Combat Stress Questionnaire by O.A. Blinov, and the COPE inventory were used. The results were processed using correlation and multiple regression analysis. The data obtained demonstrated the stability of the worldview attitudes of the military personnel and the absence of statistically significant differences in levels of combat stress between religious and non-religious combatants. At the same time, significant differences were identified in the structure of coping strategies. Among non-religious military personnel, rational-instrumental mechanisms of coping with stress play a leading role, primarily “active coping” and “planning”. Among religiously centred combatants, the dominant strategies are “positive reappraisal”, “acceptance” of the situation, and “seeking emotional and social support”. The results of the study indicate the existence of two different structures of psychological resilience in combatants, which are formed depending on their worldview orientation. Non-religious combatants are characterised by a rational-instrumental model of coping with combat stress, whereas religiously centred individuals demonstrate an existential-social model of psychological adaptation. It was established that religiosity does not act as a direct factor in reducing combat stress, but indirectly influences the choice of adaptive coping strategies and the ways of interpreting traumatic experience. The practical significance of the study lies in the possibility of using the obtained results to develop differentiated approaches to the psychological support of military personnel with different worldview orientations and to improve the interaction between military psychologists and chaplains within the system of supporting the psychological resilience of personnel

References